The first American flag was nicknamed the Continental Colors. It was used by the Second Continental Congress at the time of the Declaration of Independence. It had the Union Jack (the British flag design) in the upper corner and 13 red and white stripes. Surprisingly, it resembled the British East Read more…
The history of the British monarchy sometimes seems like a soap opera. One juicy story is the one about “The Princes in the Tower”. It is one of the most fascinating mysteries in British history. On April 9, 1483, King Edward IV died. Since he had a son, there should Read more…
Mary Ann Bickerdyke was born in Ohio in 1817. She was one of the first women to attend Oberlin College. She became a botanical doctor, using alternative medicines like herbs and plants. After the Civil War broke out, a friend who was a regimental surgeon wrote her a letter Read more…
Zenobia ruled the prosperous kingdom of Palmyra in Syria with her husband. She wore the pants in the family and even went to battle at her husbands side. It was said that she sometimes marched with her soldiers. This would not have been unusual for a woman who was Read more…
When America entered the war, the American military leaders wanted the invasion of northern France to occur in 1942 to open a second front to help take pressure of the Soviet Union and to get into the fight. Churchill and the British high command wanted to postpone the invasion and Read more…
Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926. His father was a teacher who dabbled in poetry. His mother was a Marxist who suffered from schizophrenia. She spent most of her childhood in mental institutions. In high school, he was influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman. He had some Read more…
Adolf Eichmann was born on March 19, 1906 to a middle class Austrian family. He attended the same high school that Hitler had attended 17 years earlier. In 1932, the joined the Nazi Party and soon found himself to be a member of the S.S. working for Reinhard Heydrich. Read more…
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born on May 30, 1916. She was tomboy who was fiercely competitive. Pavlichenko was attending the Kyiv University when Germany invaded the USSR. She was in the fourth year of her major in history. She had proved herself to be an excellent sharpshooter, but when she enlisted Read more…
The most famous photo from the Great Depression is “Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange. Lange was born in 1895. She contracted polio at age 7 and it weakened her right leg and left her with a permanent limp. At age 17, her father abandoned the family. She took her Read more…
The first event in history that we can date for certain was a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. In the middle of the battle, a solar eclipse occurred and shocked the soldiers into stopping. A peace was worked out because the gods were apparently angry. We know Read more…